Today, at ground zero of this season's best turnaround story, the Browns, perpetually in search of a franchise quarterback, will get an up-close look at one who has twice resurrected his career from the ashes.

Kansas City's Alex Smith came into the league as a No. 1 overall pick, was deemed a bust by many after three seasons in San Francisco, then rebounded to lead the 49ers to the playoffs before losing his job to Colin Kaepernick.

Smith now directs a Chiefs offense that provides breathers and the occasional scoring drive for the NFL's stingiest defense. There are worse gigs, and worse candidates to work them.

The knock against Smith, whose Chiefs are 7-0 but only marginally respected because they've played the league's softest schedule, is that he doesn't fill stat columns like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees.

In his best season in San Francisco in 2012, Smith threw for 3,144 yards and 17 TDs -- barely half a decent year's work for someone like Brees and certainly not becoming of a top overall pick.

But the Niners went 13-3 that season and, at least among knowledgeable observers, Smith was credited with giving a defensive-minded team exactly what it needed from him.

The common denominators for Smith are that in both stops he's been blessed with a good defense and a strong running game.

And, in what's theoretically the ultimate measure of a quarterback, he's won, going 26-5-1 in his past 32 starts, better than Manning, Brady, Brees or any other current starter.

This bears some relevance to the Browns, who have a quarterback on their payroll who lacks Smith's draft position and pedigree but seems cut from his cloth and, in an admittedly much smaller body of work, also just goes out and wins games.

If Smith is the poor man's franchise quarterback, then Brian Hoyer might be the poor man's Smith -- largely without flash, intensely competitive and capable, if not blessed with outrageous athleticism.

And although his long-term future rides on his ability to successfully rehab a surgically repaired knee, Hoyer might be exactly the kind of quarterback who can help the Browns win again.

Like the 49ers and Chiefs, the Browns are built around a good, young defense whose best players are just entering their primes. Along with a dependable running game, that can be enough to get a team to the playoffs and, in some cases, win a championship -- see the 2000 Ravens, the 2002 Buccaneers and, to a lesser extent, the 2005 and 2008 Steelers.

If the Browns believe that, too, and assuming Hoyer makes it back from his injury, the team can go into next year's draft targeting some tandem of an offensive lineman, wide receiver, corner or running back -- and not necessarily a quarterback -- with its two first-round selections.

Clearly, the Browns need a running back, but that doesn't mean they need to overpay. An increasing number of top backs weren't high picks. LeSean McCoy, the league's leading rusher through seven weeks, was a second-round pick. Jamaal Charles, the NFL's third-leading rusher, and Frank Gore, who ranks No. 4, were both third-round picks. The No. 5 rusher, Arian Foster, was an undrafted free agent.

The top two running back prospects in April's draft are Washington's Bishop Sankey and Baylor's Lache Seastrunk. Both could be late first- or early second-round picks, meaning the Browns could potentially use the pick they acquired from the Colts for Trent Richardson to take Sankey or Seastrunk.

Or they could make a run at the Texans' Ben Tate, who is 25, stuck behind Foster and will be a free agent after the season.

With a productive back, a strong defense and, hopefully, some much-needed stability in the front office and coaching staff, they could turn to Hoyer as an efficient passer and strong leader in the mold of Smith.

This is a rather long way of suggesting that the Browns might not need to fixate on spending a high draft pick on Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, Brett Hundley, Tajh Boyd or Marcus Mariota as the solution to their long-standing quarterback void.

If they take a long look at Smith today, they'll see that while there are only so many Peyton Mannings, Tom Bradys and Drew Brees' -- and not nearly enough to go around -- there are other ways to build a playoff team.